DEVELOPMENT OF LCA MODULE INTEGRATED WITH CAD FOR ECO-ASSESSMENT OF MACHINED PRODUCTS

摘要

LCA predicts the life cycle impacts of product solutions and can help determine what solution is better for the environment. However, LCA is very data dependent and requires in-depth knowledge to explicit relate environmental impacts of product to its design attributes. Current LCA methods are generally still not adapted to designers, who often lack the expertise and time to make LCA efficiently useful to their daily work. This study aims to develop a LCA module integrated with CAD system for machined products. The module employs a feature-based approach for identify, extract and convert life cycle related data in existing product models for LCA modeling and analysis. A coding system for machining feature representation and a rule-based reasoning package to generate manufacturing plans based on feature codes are developed to enable convenient eco-assessment along with CAD modeling of machined products. A step shaft LCA case study is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach.